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I love tennis. I love to watch it and I love to play it.
Being a tennis fan for many years, I’ve enjoyed watching Venus Williams and her sister Serena dominate Women’s Tennis over the past decade or so. They are truly a force to be reckoned with and I’ve cheered them on every step of the way.
It was with great sadness, then, that I learned the news a few days ago that Venus had withdrawn from the 2011 US Open currently being played in New York City due to a relatively unknown autoimmune illness.
Ms. Williams condition, called Sjogren’s Syndrome, affects about 4 million Americans and over 90% of these are women. It is an affliction of the sweat glands. Typical symptoms are dry mouth, dry eyes, joint pain and fatigue. The possibility exists for the lungs or liver to be affected as well. Even central nervous system symptoms can manifest.
Sjogren’s is autoimmune in nature meaning that the immune system is attacking its own tissues, in this particular case, primarily the sweat glands.
Like many autoimmune conditions, symptoms of Sjogren’s can overlap with other ailments causing misdiagnosis and sometimes a delay of several years before appropriate identification of the disorder is made. Venus herself has said that she thought for a long time that her problem was allergies or even asthma.
Whether or not Ms. Williams returns to tennis is uncertain. The progression of Sjogren’s can be slow or rapid and the future of her health remains highly speculative. The saddest news of all to me was reading that doctors are telling her that this affliction will be with her for the rest of her life and that the cause is likely a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Is AutoImmune Illness a Lifelong Sentence?
Heard that one before? An autoimmune disease epidemic of avalanche proportions is sweeping our nation and the world (I just read today that 38% of Europeans have mental illness – I’ll bet it’s similarly shocking in America), and it is highly misleading to hear these ailments frequently blamed on genetics because it is impossible to have a genetic epidemic.
I absolutely don’t buy the “rest of your life” argument when it comes to autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease is rooted in the gut (that’s where most of the immune system resides, after all) and there is a very good chance that conditions such as Sjogren’s can be put into remission with appropriate, temporary diet changes so the gut is able to heal and seal.
Of course, there are no guarantees with any treatment but the GAPS Diet is the best one I’ve come across to address issues like this. Many people suffering from a wide variety of autoimmune issues are reporting nothing short of astounding results on this program.
Since Ms. Williams is only 31 years old and certainly has a few years of her career left in tennis if she can regain her health, it seems the GAPS Diet would be well worth a shot – or at least a volley?
Interested in GAPS?
If going on GAPS is of interest to you and you want to find out more, check out my posts on The Five Most Common GAPS Diet Mistakes and OverWhelmed by GAPS? Help Has Arrived! for tips and resources to get you started on the right track.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Maria: http://www.gapsdiet.com/
…and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN)
or at the very least trying a gluten-free diet…
GAPS or Paleo definitely would.
I’ve read articles about how she is going vegan, and how Serena is going to support her by adopting a vegan lifestyle. Looks like the people who advised her didn’t suggest GAPS or Paleo :S
I would think so.
what is GAPS?
GAPS stands for “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”, a book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. She explains how disease begins in the gut and how an imbalance of gut flora can cause a multitude of problems. She also explains a way to turn around your health by healing the gut and re-establishing the gut flora through diet and detox.
It is a MUST read!! The book completely changed our lives and gave us so much hope for the future.
Have you heard of any results from people who have JV 1 diabetes using GAP? It is also an autoimmune disorder.
I have not heard of any, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some cases of GAPS helping this condition. It’s certainly worth a try! There is nothing to lose and most likely health will be improved and at the very least insulin better controlled.
Check out the GAPS page on Facebook, there was a discussion there about it recently.
Yes, there is a mom on the GAPS Yahoo group whose teen daughter w/ Type 1 was helped. The doctors were astonished and couldn’t explain the improvement…yeah, I bet!
Agreed…that girl needs GAPS! I’ve been on it for 5 months and am seeing amazing improvements in my overall health, as well as relief from GI symptoms that were becoming debilitating. I think most people would benefit from at least a few months on GAPS…granted, I’m a little biased. 🙂
I agree Angela. I went on GAPS for about 5 months and it improved my health greatly even though I do not have any autoimmune issues. Keeping the gut functioning well is a challenge for everyone in this day and age.
My husband’s grandmother had been diagnosed with Sjogren’s disease and Lupus and had general poor health (frequent UTI’s, pneumonia etc) until she eventually died of lung and liver cancer 4 years ago. Around the same time – 4 years ago, my husband started suffering from poor health and we have slowly researched and realized that he has systemic candida and after many failed attempts to eradicate it, we’ll be starting the GAPS diet very soon. We have also realized that his grandmother was suffering from the same thing and now it is obvious to us. All through her cancer treatment, they had to keep treating her for thrush and other yeast problems. I’m so glad we know now, but too bad doctors don’t know any of this!!!
AutoImmune Illness Forces Tennis Star to Withdraw from US Open – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/xRQITym